Huntsville gazette., 1887-07-02
A GREAT SECRET.
A Fourth Of July Story Of the Town
of Homer.

The right way to tell a story, so that
everybody will think you have made it
up yourself, and give you some credit
for it, is to begin at the wrong end and
tell it backward.
The Fourth of July of which I write
having gone by, there is no objection
to my telling how the boys of Homer
came pretty near all being killed off at
the same time. one hot evening. One
hundred and twenty eight boys-and
some believed there were one hun dred
and twenty-nine of them-had a big
secret to keep for a whole fortnight,
and they kept it without ainching, or
else their Fourth of July would have
been ruined.
But it almost killed them to do it.
Sixteen times on an average-and that
makes two thousand and forty-eight
times-one fellow said to an other, 1T
makes me feel as if / was going to
burst.
And the other fellow said: Il hope
the old cannon won't, then"
All but Joe Slocum, and he grew red
der and redder in the face all the while.
He turned wonderfully red one even
ing, when old Deacon Pettigrew came
to his fathers house just after dark,
and he went right upstairs to bed, as if
he had grown tired all at once. He had
only Just time, before he went, to hear
the Deacon say: "Mr. Slocum, 1t isn't
there
''What isn't there?"
1.-THE cannon isn't; it's gone"
Joe did not hear another word, but
his father responded, solemnly: you
don't say! We must see about that.
I'll go right over with you.
They went in what looked like
hurry. They stopped on their way
and called out Judge Keep and old
Uncle Jedediah Barber, and they
tried to get some more of the academy
trustees, but couldn't do it, and all
those four went to the old cannon
house on the green, away back OF the
row of meeting houses. Deacon Petit
grew had a lantern, and he showed
them the whole inside of the cannon
house, and they all agreed that the
cannon was not there. 1t had been a
six-pounder when it was there, and
had been captured with Burgoyne's
army in the war of the Revolution,
and it was thing the village was
proud Of It was a standing proof
that the village had be en- in the Revo-
luton, and had helped capture Bur-
goyne and his cannon. Now the
proof was all gone, and nobody could
guess where it had gone to.
Uncle Jed Barber was the richest
man in Homer, and entitled to say a
great deal, but he could hardly uttered
one word in the cannon-hOuse. He
only chuckled when Deacon Pettigrew
remarked twice running:
! IF you'd only ha' let me lock it up
IN my barn as wanted tor
= SOME said one thing, and some said
another, and they voted with Judge
Keep that: "It's only week now to
the Fourth of July. and we can search
every barn in town, and we'll find it
somewhere. You can't hide any thing
So big as that"
That was what every body else was
saying next morning. You couldn't
put six FOUNDER brass cannon, wheels
and all, into bottle and cork it up
and hide it Every body looked for it
everywhere. and the academy trustees
even went away outside Of the village,
and were sure there was no kind OF
artillery in any barn for miles and
miles. There were no woods around
that could hide thing like that, and
il began to look ss i it must have been